Draft & Publish Updates

I usually share my Figma file with developers so we can work on the same file at the same time. This is very useful because developers can inspect the designs and start working on them directly.

However, I sometimes need to make changes or try different solutions before the design is actually ready for development.

The problem is that developers can see these changes immediately while I am still working on them. This can be confusing, especially when I am still experimenting, changing layouts, or making updates that are not final yet.

What I would like to have is a simple Draft / Publish option.

When I start making changes, they would stay in a Draft version that only I can see. Developers would continue seeing the latest published version.

Once I finish my work, I could click “Publish Updates”. At that point, the changes would become visible to developers, and they would receive a notification that there are new updates.

It would be even more useful if Figma could highlight the updated screens, components, or sections so developers can quickly see what has changed.

This would allow me to work freely on new ideas and changes without affecting what developers are currently working on, while still keeping everything in the same Figma file.